Smoking During Pregnancy

Where We Stand: Smoking During Pregnancy

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) message is clear—don’t smoke when pregnant, and protect yourself and your children from secondhand tobacco smoke.

Many studies have shown that if a woman smokes or is exposed to secondhand smoke during pregnancy, her child may be born too early (prematurely) or be smaller than normal.

Other effects caused by smoking during pregnancy may include:

• Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS)
• Decreased fetal breathing
• Learning problems
• Respiratory disorders
• Heart disease as an adult

After birth, children exposed to secondhand tobacco smoke have more respiratory infections, bronchitis, pneumonia, poor lung function, and asthma than children who aren’t exposed. Smoke exposure is most dangerous for younger children because they spend more time in close proximity to parents or other smokers, and they have immature lungs.

• If you smoke, quit. Ask your obstetrician, primary care doctor, or your child’s pediatrician for free help, or call 1-800-QUIT-NOW.
• If you can’t quit, don’t expose your child to smoke—make your home and car completely smoke free.
• ​If you are a non-smoker and live with a smoker, encourage your partner or family/friend to quit smoking.

The AAP recommends several things to protect children and pregnant women from secondhand smoke and to make sure smokers who want to quit can do so. The AAP supports legislation that would prohibit smoking in public places, including outdoor public places that children frequent. Other AAP-recommended actions include banning tobacco advertising, including an adult rating to movies, TV shows, or video games that show tobacco use, and smoking bans in multi-unit housing like apartment buildings and condos.

 

The Dangers of Secondhand Smoke

Even if you don’t smoke, breathing in someone else’s smoke can be deadly too. Secondhand smoke causes about 3,000 deaths from lung cancer and tens of thousands of deaths from heart disease to nonsmoking adults in the United States each year.

Millions of children are breathing in secondhand smoke in their own homes. Secondhand smoke can be especially harmful to your children’s health because their lungs still are developing. If you smoke around your children or they are exposed to secondhand smoke in other places, they may be in more danger than you realize. Children whose parents smoke only outside are still exposed to the chemicals in secondhand smoke. The best way to eliminate this exposure is to quit.

Read more to learn about the dangers of ­secondhand smoke and how to create a smoke-free environment for your children.

What is Secondhand Smoke?

Secondhand smoke (also known as environmental tobacco smoke) is the smoke a smoker breathes out and that comes from the tip of burning cigarettes, pipes, and cigars. It contains about 4,000 chemicals. Many of these chemicals are dangerous; more than 50 are known to cause cancer. Anytime children breathe in secondhand smoke they are exposed to these chemicals.

The American Academy Pediatrics (AAP) has conducted research on the effects of thirdhand smoke and found that it is also harmful. Thirdhand smoke is the smoke left behind—the harmful toxins that remain in places where people have smoked previously. Thirdhand smoke can be found in the walls of a bar, upholstery on the seats of a car, or even a child’s hair after a caregiver smokes near the child.

Your Developing Baby and Smoke

If you smoke or are exposed to secondhand smoke when you’re pregnant, your baby is exposed to harmful chemicals too. This may lead to many serious health problems, including:

• Miscarriage
• Premature birth (born not fully developed)
• Lower birth weight than expected (possibly meaning a less healthy baby)
• Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS)
• Learning problems and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)

The health risks go up the longer the pregnant woman smokes or is exposed to smoke. Quitting anytime during pregnancy helps—of course, the sooner the better. All pregnant women should stay away from secondhand smoke and ask smokers not to smoke around them.

Secondhand Smoke and Your Children’s Health

Infants have a higher risk of SIDS if they are exposed to secondhand smoke. Children have a higher risk of serious health problems, or problems may become worse. Children who breathe secondhand smoke can have more:

• Ear infections
• Coughs and colds
• Respiratory problems, such as bronchitis and pneumonia
• Tooth decay

Children of smokers cough and wheeze more and have a harder time getting over colds. They miss many more school days too. Secondhand smoke can cause other symptoms including stuffy nose, headache, sore throat, eye irritation, and hoarseness.

Children with asthma are especially sensitive to secondhand smoke. It may cause more asthma attacks and the attacks may be more severe, requiring trips to the hospital.

Long-Term Effects of Secondhand Smoke

Children who grow up with parents who smoke are themselves more likely to smoke. Children and teens who smoke are affected by the same health problems that affect adults. Secondhand smoke may cause problems for children later in life including:

• Poor lung development (meaning that their lungs never grow to their full potential)
• Lung cancer
• Heart disease
• Cataracts (an eye disease)

Secondhand Smoke is Everywhere

Children can be exposed to secondhand smoke in many places. Even if there are no smokers in your home, your children can still be exposed to secondhand smoke. Places include:

• In a car or on a bus
• At child care or school
• At a babysitter’s house
• At a friend’s or relative’s house
• In a restaurant
• At the mall
• At sporting events or concerts
• In parks or playgrounds

Creating a Smoke-Free Environment

The following tips may help keep your children from being exposed to secondhand smoke:

• Set the example. If you smoke, quit today! If your children see you smoking, they may want to try it, and they may grow up smoking as well. If there are cigarettes at home, children are more likely to experiment with smoking—the first step in becoming addicted.
• Remove your children from places where smoking is allowed, even if no one is smoking while you are there. Chemicals from smoke can be found on surfaces in rooms days after the smoking occurred.
• Make your home smoke free. Until you can quit, don’t smoke inside your home and don’t smoke anywhere near your children, even if you are outside. Don’t put out any ashtrays. Remember, air flows throughout a house, so smoking in even one room allows smoke to go everywhere.
• Make your car smoke free. Until you can quit, don’t smoke inside your car. Opening windows isn’t enough to clear the air and can actually blow smoke back into the faces of passengers in the back seat.
• Choose a babysitter who doesn’t smoke. Even if the babysitter smokes outside, your children are exposed. Consider changing babysitters to find a smoke-free environment for your children.
• Encourage tobacco-free child care and schools. Help your children’s child care or school, including outdoor areas and teachers’ lounges, become tobacco free. Get your children involved in the effort to make schools tobacco free!

An Important Choice

If you smoke, one of the most important things you can do for your own health and the health of your children is to stop smoking. Quitting is the best way to prevent your children from being exposed to secondhand smoke.

It may be hard to quit. Talk with your doctor or your child’s pediatrician if you need help. There are over-the-counter and prescription medicines that may help you quit. Call 1-800-QUIT-NOW to be connected to your state quitline- they can refer you to local resources and help you quit.

Parents need to make every effort to keep their children away from smokers and secondhand smoke. Parents who smoke should quit for their health and the health of their children.

 

Tips to Keep a Smoke-free Home & Car

​You may already know that secondhand smoke is dangerous for anyone, especially children, but did you know that smoke can stay in a room for a long time after someone smokes there?

After smoke has been in the air, it settles on surfaces in rooms throughout the building. This smoke can be ingested by children, making them sick with ear infections, bronchitis, pneumonia, or Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). The smoke can be inhaled by children, or ingested through putting items in their mouths.

It is important to understand that opening a window, sitting in a separate area, or using ventilation, air conditioning, or a fan cannot eliminate secondhand smoke exposure. If you cannot quit smoking, it is important to maintain a smoke-free environment in areas where children live or play.

Tips to Keep a Smoke-free Home:

• Never smoke inside your home, even when it’s cold outside. Smoking indoors one time is enough to contaminate the rest of the house, even if you’re in a room with the doors closed.
• Create a comfortable place to smoke outdoors for both yourself and any visitors who smoke.
• Keeping an umbrella near the door will help encourage you to go outside to smoke even when the weather is bad.
• Let guests know that your house is smoke free and show them to a child-free area where they can smoke if they need to do so.
• Consider posting a sign to remind visitors that there is no smoking in your house.

Tips to Keep a Smoke-free Car:

• Do not smoke, ever, in a car that transports children. Smoking in your car even once can fill the seats and other materials with toxins, even if the windows are open.
• Remind passengers not to smoke in your car.
• Try to time your smoking to coincide with times when you know you will be without children at another location- Headed to work, where there is a designated smoking area? Try to hold off on smoking until you get there. You will keep your child healthier, as well as your car!
• Fill your car’s ashtray with spare change so you aren’t tempted to fill it with ash.
• Leave a cell phone charger or other device plugged into the car’s adapter outlet so you are not tempted to use it as a lighter.
• Store your cigarettes in the trunk or in another out-of-reach area while you drive.
• Consider putting up a sticker or decal on your car that reminds passengers that it is a no smoking vehicle.

Remember that the only way to completely protect your family from the toxic chemicals in secondhand smoke is to quit smoking.

Smoking Hurts Everyone

Many people think that the only people harmed by tobacco use are smokers who have smoked for a long time. The fact is that tobacco use can be harmful to everyone. This includes unborn babies and people who don’t smoke.

If you smoke cigarettes, cigars, or pipes, or use smokeless tobacco like chew and snuff, quit! It’s the best thing you can do for yourself and for everyone around you is quit.

Smoking Harms Infants and Children

When parents expose their children to smoke, or let others do so, they are putting their children’s health in danger and sending a message that smoking is OK.

Secondhand smoke is the smoke a smoker breathes out. It’s also the smoke that comes from the tip of lit cigarettes, pipes, and cigars. It contains about 4,000 different chemicals, many of which cause cancer. Because of exposure to secondhand smoke, about 3,400 nonsmokers die from lung cancer every year and 22,000 to 69,000 nonsmokers die from heart disease every year.

Breathing in smoke can cause:

• Asthma
• Respiratory infections (like bronchitis and pneumonia)
• Lung problems
• Ear infections
• Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) (for babies younger than 1 year)

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends that families keep smoke-free homes and vehicles at all times. This is the only way to fully prevent exposure to the toxic chemicals in secondhand smoke.

Smoking Harms Unborn Babies

Smoking during pregnancy or exposing pregnant women to smoke can lead to many serious health problems for an unborn baby, such as:

• Miscarriage
• Premature birth (born not fully developed)
• Lower birth weight than expected (possibly meaning a less healthy baby)
• SIDS
• Learning problems and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)

Smoking Harms Teens

90% of smokers start before age 18. About one-third of them will die of a smoking-related disease. Other teen smokers may experience the same health problems as adult smokers, including:

• Addiction to nicotine
• Long-term cough
• Faster heart rate
• Lung problems
• Higher blood pressure
• Less stamina and endurance
• Higher risk of lung cancer and other cancers
• More respiratory infections
• Smoking also gives you bad breath, yellow teeth, and yellow fingernails; makes your hair and clothes smell bad; and wrinkles your skin.

For these reasons, the AAP recommends that the legal age to purchase tobacco products be raised to 21. By the time a person reaches age 21, it is unlikely that they will begin smoking. Communities who have raised the tobacco purchase age have seen decreases in teen smoking rates.

Smoking Harms Adults

Smoking is the most preventable cause of death in the United States.

Think about the following facts:

• Every year in the United States about 438,000 people die from diseases related to smoking.
• According to the American Cancer Society, smoking kills more people than alcohol, car crashes, suicide, AIDS, murder, and drugs combined.
• Smoking causes 87% of lung cancer deaths. Lung cancer is the leading type of cancer in men and women.
• In addition to cancer, smoking also causes heart disease, stroke, chronic lung problems, and many other diseases.

It’s Time to Quit!

Thousands of Americans have found a way to stop smoking. You can too. People who quit smoking live longer, healthier lives. They look and feel better. They save money and are great role models for others. Most importantly, they can help improve the health of their children and other family members.